Three Florida legislators have proposed a bill that would require restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus. While I know there are heated arguments on both sides of this issue, I like the idea.

Has this ever happened to you? You’re in a hurry. You want to complete your business and the person serving you is preoccupied with something other than serving you. Then when you are served, you might get an insincere apology for the delay followed by the completion of your transaction. If asked to describe this experience you would likely respond “That’s typical” or “It’s nothing more and probably a little less than I expected.”

I wanted to call this article “Sharpen Your Customer Focus or You Will Lose Customers!” but a few of my colleagues thought this was a bit too blunt. Absolutely true mind you, but blunt.

Then I thought why not make the headline a question; “How Many Customers Are You Willing To Lose Today Because of a Lack of Customer Focus?” Again, true but too direct. So in the end I went with what you see above.

In this economy, customer service is more important than ever. You can’t survive long without loyal customers. It may be tempting to lower your price or fees but then you attract a customer who is unlikely to be loyal for long. Tough times require a renewed focus on customer service. I know it easier said than done given many of you have fewer employees as well as hiring freezes that may be resulting in lower morale. Put those thoughts and potential excuses aside for a moment and consider what you must do now.

Last night I had a fun (and lengthy) text conversation with one of my nieces. She’s in college and 5 hours away so we don’t see her as much as we’d like. And being a busy college kid, phone conversations with her are not very common.

In fact, our “kids” (12 nieces and nephews) are the primary reason my wife and I both upgraded our cell phones and plans to make it easier (and affordable) to do a lot of texting. Other than live visits, text message conversations are the most common way we can stay in touch with them.

My wife and I stepped into a Plato’s Closet clothing store in Dayton, OH, yesterday at about 3:48pm. There was a poorly written sign on the door that said the store would be closing at 4pm so people could get home for trick or treating.

Prakash Sadagopan, Director of Product Strategy at Converges recently spoke at the OSS/BSS Asia Pacific Summit. His report was ground breaking. Through research he found that the customer’s experience was as important as the product being sold, and more important than brand or price.

I heard a very interesting observation from a 14 year old young man the other day.

“Why don’t they sell swim trunks in July?  That’s when I need them.  Seems like stores aren’t very focused on what their customers need!”

Now, I know all you folks out there in retail-land have your reasons for why this occurs.  Seasons for the industry are not the same as the seasons for consumers.  Inventory needs to be cleared out for next season’s merchandise.  I am sure you can share more.

One of the best ways to distance your organization from the competition is to solve a problem that frustrates your industry’s customers. I just read an Orlando Sentinel article that provides a great example of this approach: Disney by Cell Phone.

The number one guest complaint at Walt Disney World is about long wait times for the rides. And over the years Disney World has implemented several tools to help minimize the problem. Tools include:

I’ve discovered the mark of great restaurant. It’s all about the straws.

A good restaurant will refill my diet coke on a regular basis until I say “no, thanks” or my hands begin to shake from the caffeine overdose. A GREAT restaurant will refill my diet coke on a regular basis AND stop bringing me straws with every glass.

As I work with companies to help them improve their customer service, some things stand out. These are things a lot of organizations don’t do consistently. Yet if they did they’d find the quality of their customer service would improve and their customer loyalty would increase.

1. Know what your customers want.

The first thing is to make sure you really know what your customers want. I know this sounds too basic to even talk about. But I’m continually amazed at how many organizations make assumptions about what their customers want without asking them.